Zoey's potty extravaganza HELP!!!

Alright...time to fess up. I have been really lax on Zoey's potty training and it's time to do potty training bootcamp. For the first month that we had her, she was EXCELLENT. Then she had a major bought of diarrhea that lasted for 3 weeks which totally blew the training out the window. I was instructed by the vet to no let her outside so I can watch her stool very closely, so we were using puppy pads. She did really well at first, by only peeing on the pad but now she is doing it everywhere. I think the poor thing is completely confused...so it is back to square one.
At night, because my softy hubby decided to let her sleep in the bed, she has been getting up at night and peeing/pooping on the puppy pad (or on our clothes that are on the floor :x :x :x ). She is used to getting up as she pleases and doing her business so she really hasn't had to hold it all night.
So two nights ago, I had enough. She also has a lovely problem with eating her poop and she deceided to bring her poop with her as a midnight snack into our bedroom. It got ALL OVER EVERYTHING. :x :x :x She also will get up, drink massive amounts of water and puke it up all over the floor.
Last night, I decided it was time for bootcamp. I picked up the water, closed our door (after cleaning EVERYTHING off the floor) with her in bed so she would have to let me know when she wanted out. That worked fine accept she wanted out 4 times. Two of which were just for water. She pottied outside everytime I took her and pooped around 2:30am. Even though I have a fenced in yard, I brought her out on a leash so I could keep track of her (the yard is huge and she likes to run of and chase the cat).
I know that I have made this twice as hard as it needs to be because of the puppy pads, but during those 3 weeks I really had no other choice. Now, we are paying the consequences. We've tried crating her with the other dogs, but she will literally cry for 8 hours straight. HELP!!

Mon,

I am so sorry you're going through all of this. That seriously is awful. So, is your bed near the floor or do you have doggy steps to get on and off of it?? I know it might sound cruel, but my dogs are not allowed off of my bed in the middle of the night. Lord knows that Faith would have half of the house ingested by the time I woke up! :yikes Maybe you can wake up in the middle of the night for the next week or so and take her out?? I've been able to stop taking Faith out in the middle of the night, but up until about 4 months I got up every single night @ 2:30AM and took her out. How many times is she pooping per day? And what time does she have her last meal?? Faith has only pooped in the middle of the night ever when she didn't go in the evenings. I know it might sound silly, but switching her to NV Raw helped a LOT with potty training. She went from pooping 4x a day to 2x a day in the blink of an eye, and i only give the RAW to her 50% of the time! Has she gone in heat yet?? I have no experience with it but I have read about people's dogs going crazy with potty training when they are in or near their heat cycle. People may not agree with my methods, but both kosmo and faith STILL get potty treats for going outside. It is usually something simple such as a charlee bear, but when Faith was smaller I used high value treats like cheese or liver squares. I let them know each time they go how well they have done and they both get kisses and treats. Maybe you need to go outside with her every time so that she can re-associate going outside with getting something good?? I let Faith out now and I wave a cookie in front of her nose and say "go potty for cookie!" and she RUNS out, squats, and RUNS back within 30 seconds, lol. As far as her sleeping in your bed, good luck. Avi and I upgraded to a king bed to accomodate our furries so I am not the one to give you advice on that.. :lol::lol: I still have to get up sometimes in the middle of the night with my dogs if they are thirsty or have to pee. Kosmo wanted out monday night. They both drank a massive amount of water and then I took them out so they wouldn't have to pee. I don't mind getting up if it's only occasionally. Come to find out the next morning neither of them had water (I filled it up @ dinner time and apparently they drank it all! :yikes) so that's probably why they were thirsty. Since then, I've made sure they have water all night and every night.. ! Good luck!

Oh my goodness, you sure do have quite a pickle there. Has the vet declared her well now?

she will literally cry for 8 hours straight.

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Have you actually heard her cry for 8 hours straight or is this just what you would think would happen? You see if this is literally what is happening, I would get her back to the vets because I think it highly unlikely that a dog that was not in extreme pain could actually cry for 8 hours straight. However, if the vet has given her the all clear, & this is more your fear than an actuality then read on...

Here is what I would be doing. It is called "tough love". I'd be feeding her no later than 5:00pm if possible. If you work & get home later, then feeder her as soon as you can. Take up her water about an hour later and do not let her have access to any more. Very last thing before you go to bed, take her outside & stay with her until she has done a pee & poo.... hopefully she would have done one not too long after her dinner anyway.

Now, to the tough bit. Crate her, on her own at this stage. Put your ear plugs in, knock back a nip or two if necessary, close the doors between your bedroom & where her crate is, and weather it out. You will probably have a couple of sleepless nights, maybe a bit more, but there really is no shortcut to this.

And the pee pads.... just get rid of them. If folks live in hi-rise & have no other option maybe they are great, but if you've got a backyard it is just too confusing to have the dog pooping & peeing inside the house one time, but not the next time.

Good luck, have fun, be strong, be brave.

:xctly: Caraline took the words out of my mouth. :lol:

I would be a bit concerned though that she is needing to drink large amounts of water several times at night, and is then also vomiting it back up. Have you discussed that with your vet? Does she drink and vomit like this during the day?

Remember a dog only learns what we teach it. So if she hasn't had any structure for a while she has no idea that she shouldn't be doing these things, and you are right, it is especially confusing for her as the ground rules have kept changing. I think your vet was wrong, to be honest -- if you take her out on a lead you can still keep close eyes on her poops without having had to go through this particular hell for so long ad now needing to re-housetrain her.

A lot of people feel it is better to not allow puppies to sleep in human beds at night -- not until they are completely housetrained. The problem is always that if there is one accident, then there will likely be many more as the scent penetrates the mattress. Sometimes you have to just toss the mattress and begin afresh.

Also how is she getting the chance to bring her poops into the bed? That suggests she is able to go in places where you are not watching her. If/when the diarrhea is ongoing it is better to get up several times a night if needed and take her out on a lead, ending the association with going inside. If it is over, here's no reason a dog should need to get up during the night to go after it is about 4 months old. So crating and eliminating that opportunity for her to go and then carry her poops around would obviously make life a lot easier.

Try putting a sheet over the crate as well BTW as she is more likely to settle if she cannot see out.

Have you actually heard her cry for 8 hours straight or is this just what you would think would happen?

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She has cried for 2 hours straight (this is the most my hubby could tolerate before wanting to throw her out the window.) After that, she will wake up every few hours and cry to be let out again. Ear plugs it is then...

I would be a bit concerned though that she is needing to drink large amounts of water several times at night, and is then also vomiting it back up. Have you discussed that with your vet? Does she drink and vomit like this during the day?

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She does do this during the day. It's usually after she has been romping around like crazy, downs a bowl full of water, then pukes up the water that she was drinking. :sl*p: I haven't mentioned it to my vet, but she has always done this. My mother's cavalier does the same thing so I didn't think much of it. I will ask him though...

She has never had an accident in the bed because she has been jumping down to use the puppy pad. If she poops on the pad, then she carries it back into our room and eats it on the floor (not in our bed):yuk:

Her "D" is all cleared up, thank goodness, so I will be purchasing ear plugs on my way home from work tonight.

We went through this tough love approach with our Zoey as well. It really worked for us. It was about 3 nights of crying/whining constantly and then she was over it. Ear plugs work well enough to take the sharpness sound out of the bark. She now goes to bed happily and stays there fine until 7:30am. We still make her dinner the very last thing she eats at around 5:30pm, and take her water at 8:30pm unless shes been running around like crazy.

Can you crate her in your room? I think crating is the only way you have control over her at night. Caraline said it all.

Last year when Barney was picking up the house training he was doing fine but then he got bad diarrhea and sickness sowly we got him back to nomal but at the time I was very worried because he was so sick so take your time and she will pick it up all again keep us informer how you get on ---Aileen and the gang (Jazzie---Barney---Sam)

So last night I went out and bought "Construction worker grade" ear plugs (the ones worn by Jack hammer operators ) and gave a pair to my hubby. When I put them in, I could not hear a sound, not even the tv!! I had to put my cell phone alarm inside of my pillow case just so I could hear it go off in the morning. If Zoey cried last night, I didn't know it .

I crated her with my other two cavie boys. I did hear her at 4:30 this morning, so she must have been WAILING. I think she woke up and didn't know where she was because she settled right back down without me going in there. I think I may have to go buy ear plugs for my neighbors .

This morning, she pottied and pooped outside. Praise the Lord!! It was so nice getting up this morning and not having to watch where I step . Thanks for your advice everyone, I got a full night's rest without having to sleep with one ear open to hear her getting into trouble.

cl*p Well done!

Most neighbours are quite reasonable & understanding if they know that a situation is only short term. I'd just go knock on their door, apologise for any disturbance they had last night & explain that you expect this should only go on for a few days. You never know.... you might be nicely surprised. They may say "oh, we never heard a thing"

Anway, that is most excellent. You have jumped the biggest & the most difficult hurdle... the first night.

Re vomiting up water- is it possible that you're giving a little pup too much water? Maybe she'd be less likely to bring it straight back up if you give it to her little and often?

Lisa_T said:

Re vomiting up water- is it possible that you're giving a little pup too much water? Maybe she'd be less likely to bring it straight back up if you give it to her little and often?

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I would love to have some suggestions as to how to do this because I have yet to figure out a way. I have four dogs and 1 cat who all drink out of the same bowl (I refill it throughout the day). It's hard to meet all of their hydration needs and control Zoey's intake at the same time. icon_nwunsure